The present invention relates to distribution management of products such as consumer goods, intermediate goods, components, raw materials transported in containers, and the like (hereinafter referred to as “products” or “goods”).
With certain brand-name products, e.g., expensive handbags or clothes, it is sometimes difficult for average consumers to distinguish between the genuine products and well-made counterfeit goods. In such a situation, an appraiser or authorized personnel from the manufacturer is needed to determine the authenticity of the products. This type of evaluations requires considerable time and effort.
Accordingly, in the distribution of products, inspection of each individual product is impractical due to time constraints and a large number of products involved. As a result, fake products are widespread and a serious concern for the manufacturers or owners of famous brand-name products. These counterfeit goods decrease the sales revenue and dilute the value of the brand names. In addition, the counterfeit goods also injure the wholesalers and consumers in the distribution chain since they are deceived into purchasing counterfeit goods at prices equivalent to that of the genuine products.
Japanese laid-open patent publication number 2000-148950 discloses a counterfeit detection system that uses an identification tag. The identification tag is attached to a product at a location where the tag is not visible to the public. The tag is coupled to data transferring means that is capable of transferring data without requiring contact and includes a non-volatile memory for storing product management information. The authenticity of a product is determined by reading the information stored in the tag.
Japanese patent number 2584963 discloses a product distribution management system, in which product identification information is stored in a product management center prior to shipping the products. This product identification information is used to register the products that are shipped to a particular receiving party. A bar code is attached to each product, and the receiving party or site uses a scanning device to read the bar code upon receiving the product. The receiving party can then authenticate the received products by comparing the product identification information, i.e., the bar code, that has been scanned with the record of products that has been shipped, i.e., the previously registered product identification information.
In the counterfeit detection system disclosed in Japanese laid-open patent publication number 2000-148950, product information and distribution site identification information are written into an ID tag attached to the product during the distribution process. The storage capacity of the ID tag, accordingly, limits the amount of information that can be entered into the ID tag. This may prevent entering important security information, e.g., the product distribution path.
Also, since numerous writing operations are performed during the distribution process, there is a risk that a person may enter false information into tag or the stored information may get corrupted due to exposure to electromagnetic fields during the product distribution process. These risks reduce the reliability of the disclosed counterfeit detection system.
In Japanese patent number 2584963, the product distribution management system receives product identification information from each distribution site upon receipt of the products. The products are then authenticated by determining whether the received product identification information has been registered previously in the system and whether the system has received an authentication request more than once from the same distribution site for that product identification information. In addition, the use of barcode is unappealing to the eyes and are not appropriate for many expensive, famous brand-name products